US and Israeli forces have sent dozens of Iranian warships to the bottom of the Gulf, but military planners are now warning that Tehran’s “secret” navy — a shadowy fleet of fast boats, disguised vessels and underwater ᴀssets — still poses a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly threat to the Strait of Hormuz, defence officials say.

Over the past week, coordinated strikes have gutted Iran’s conventional fleet: frigates, corvettes and the drone carrier Shahid Bagheri have all been hammered by carrier jets, Tomahawk missiles and submarine‑launched torpedoes. Satellite imagery shows gutted hulls listing at piers, oil slicks spreading across naval bases and burned‑out wrecks littering the coastline.

Yet intelligence briefings circulating in Washington and Riyadh paint a more troubling picture. Iran’s IRGC Navy has dispersed hundreds of fast‑attack speedboats into hidden coves, fishing ports and even civilian marinas.

Dozens of midget submarines and semi‑submersible drones are believed to be lurking beneath the shallow Gulf waters, armed with torpedoes and limpet mines. Cargo dhows have been converted into covert missile platforms, blending into the thousands of vessels that ply Hormuz daily.

US commanders admit they are now hunting “ghosts”: small, cheap and expendable ᴀssets designed to swarm tankers, lay mines overnight and vanish before dawn. One Pentagon official called it “a fleet that doesn’t look like a fleet — until it’s too late.”

For global markets already on edge, the warning is stark: sinking Iran’s visible navy was the easy part. The secret navy hiding in plain sight may be far harder to find — and far more dangerous to ignore.